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The Celestial Choir
"The Celestial Choir" is the first episode of the Eighth Season of Father Brown. Summary The Kembleford Choristers, this year run by Mrs McCarthy, reach the final of the Three Counties Choir Competition 1953 at Worcester Cathedral. Mrs McCarthy arranges a coach to take the choristers that include Sergeant Goodfellow and Lady Felicia together with Inspector Mallory who's daughter is singing in a junior competition and Father Brown. Events conspire to prevent them reaching Worcester in time. Both Mallory and Brown suspect sabotage by one of the choristers and Mrs McCarthy suspects a rival choir. A dark secret from the past proves them right. Plot The Kembleford Choristers enter the heats of the Three Counties Choir Competition at Worcester, with Mrs McCarthy as the newly-installed appointed of the group. Prior to their performance, Lawrence Ashton the leader of the rival - and defending champions - Hambleston Harmonisers, smugly mocks the group's poor performance in the previous iteration of the competition where they finished dead last. However a spectacular solo by Audrey Belchant wins over the judges and group are through to the final back at the Cathedral the week after. On the day of the competition, Lady Felicia returns to cheer the group on. However she ends up being encouraged to join the team by Mrs McCarthy after one of the members drops out due to illness. At the police station, Sergeant Goodfellow informs Inspector Mallory that he is off to the competition, prompting the Inspector to realise he is supposed to be attending the performance of the youth choir where his daughter Janet is performing. However, he has been preoccupied with work that he is running late, fearing the wrath of his wife, the Inspector hitches a lift on board the bus taking the group to Worcester. With everyone on board, Mrs McCarthy informs the group that the winner of the competition will perform at the Royal Variety Performance in front of the Queen. The bus makes a lunch stop at a cafe, Mrs McCarthy scolds Nicholas Curtley (Audrey's fiance) and Wesley Summerton for smoking. Nicholas' mother (and the previous choir leader) Barbara questions Mrs McCarthy about the quality of the group's robes compared to that of rival Hambleston's; Mrs McCarthy retorts that she had to make each robe by hand, whilst Lawrence Ashton could use the female inmates at HMP Sonning - where he is chaplain - to make his group's robes. The group here a disturbance in the female toilet and upon entering find Audrey out cold, having received a blow to the head. Upon awakening, Audrey claims that she heard a noise outside and opened the window, the next thing she remembered was coming to on the floor, she nonetheless remains determined to still perform. They all board the bus as Lawrence drives past. After some miles, the bus breaks down. Bunty checks underneath and finds that the fuel pipe has been punctured, suspicion immediately becomes fixated on sabotage by Wesley. Father Brown advises that the group should walk to Lower Swaddling a couple of miles away, and catch a train to Worcester. They take a shortcut across a field and are warned by a farmer of a bull that begins to charge at them, they manage to escape, but Lady Felicia loses a shoe, and Barbara sprains her ankle. They shelter from the rain in a barn, whilst Father Brown notices Audrey and Nicholas having an argument. Nicholas informs Father Brown that he found a photograph of a younger Audrey with another young man, despite her claims that he was her brother even though she had never mentioned one before. Father Brown hears a scream and goes to investigate, he finds Audrey who points to writing on the side of the barn - "Sing Tonight and Die". The group suspect both Lawrence and the suspiciously-absent Wesley, who promptly returns with the farmer and his tractor/trailer. The group manage to reach Lower Swaddling station, however they miss the last train to Worcester. All hope is initially lost, until Sergeant Goodfellow returns in a police van he has borrowed from the village's police station. They manage to arrive at Worcester shortly after the deadline to register has passed, but Lady Felicia uses her influence to get Canon Fox to allow the group in, unfortunately for the Inspector, he has missed his daughter's performance. Father Brown goes to find Audrey to inform her to get ready. He finds her and questions her as to why she was responsible for the sabotage of the bus and the threat on the barn wall. Father Brown explains he noticed the dirt on Audrey's dress from laying down underneath the bus to cut the pipe, on her way back through the toilet window, she slipped and hit her head. As she was the one to discover the threat, she must have been the one who wrote it. Audrey was clearly being threatened into not performing and Father Brown recognises the handwriting on an envelope that was slipped into some flowers for Audrey as belonging to Lawrence Ashton. Audrey reveals that both her parents died when she was young, leaving her to look after her depressed and alcoholic brother. One day after burning his breakfast, he began to attack her with a knife, she hit him with a frying pan and inadvertently killed him. The police arrested her on the motive of getting her brother's half of the inheritance and she spent 10 years at HMP Sonning for manslaughter, where Lawrence was the chaplain. She never revealed the truth to anyone, even Nicholas because she feared losing everyone around her, especially Nicholas, her first romance. Lawrence however knew, and threatened to expose her unless she refused to perform. Father Brown informs her that Lawrence will face justice, but she must confess her past to Nicholas, but first, she has some singing to do. Kembleford return home as proud champions. Sergeant Goodfellow requests one last favour from everyone. Goodfellow leads a downtrodden Inspector Mallory to St. Marys where he reveals that Janet is going to repeat her performance for him. Her performance of "Abide With Me" brings the proud inspector to tears.